Conditional approval for COVID-19 test in private hospitals

Director General of Health Services Dr. Anil Jasinghe yesterday said private hospitals in the country would be allowed to conduct tests for COVID-19 on persons who show symptoms. 

He said test results should be released within 24 hours and should not cost more than Rs. 6,000 at private hospitals.

Allowing testing of COVID-19 at private hospitals came up for discussion at the National Task Force meeting chaired by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday. India has India has allowed private labs to do COVID test with proper guidelines.

Sri Lanka Tourism Chairperson Kimarli Fernando made a credible case that private hospitals must be allowed to carry out COVID-19 tests. 

Apart from State hospitals resources being stretched, she said many preferred to use private hospitals as they were reluctant or scared to go to the former. This could be because of the fear psychosis over Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH) and other reasons.

Fernando said the Government could set a maximum price that private sector hospitals could charge for COVID-19 tests instead of barring them. It was also pointed out that this would ensure more people voluntarily testing, thereby minimising the risk of an outbreak.

Western Province Governor Seetha Ambepola too backed the move and stressed any concerns of health authorities could be addressed by issuing strict guidelines. 

Dr. Jasinghe explained at the meeting some of the concerns and why private hospitals were not yet allowed. It was pointed out COVID-19 tests must be done under strict conditions, under supervision, by trained staff. There is a need to establish a reporting system as well.

Yesterday’s decision to allow private hospitals follows the realisation of the urgency of preventing the outbreak of COVID-19 but with proper guidelines.

India yesterday said it had initiated talks with 51 accredited private laboratories in a bid to widen the diagnosis protocol for tackling coronavirus in the country.

“We are in the process of engaging private NABL [National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories] accredited laboratories for carrying out testing of Covid-19 cases,” Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) Director-General Balram Bhargava said during a press conference, the Hindustan Times reported.

“We appeal to all private laboratories to offer COVID-19 diagnosis free of cost,” he added.

The ICMR on Tuesday issued a release ‘Strategy of COVID-19 testing in India’ and laid down guidelines for private sector laboratories that intend to initiate COVID-19 testing.

As per the guidelines in India, lab testing should only be offered when prescribed by a qualified physician as per ICMR guidance and the latest revised version of the guidelines must be followed:

• Standard Operation Protocol (SOPs) will be shared by the ICMR as soon as the concerned private lab procures the primers, probes and reagents
• Adoption of commercial kits for testing should be based on validations conducted by lCMR – National Institute of Virology (NlV), Pune.
• Appropriate ‘biosafety and biosecurity’ precautions should be ensured during sample collection. Alternatively, the ICMR suggests the creation of a “disease-specific separate collection site”.
• Private labs must ensure immediate/real-time reporting of initiation of contact tracing and other research activities to the state government and other authorities.
• Private labs are urged to offer Covid-19 diagnosis at no cost.